TechHire is Helping Kansas City Employers Connect to New Tech Talent

There are more ways than ever before to learn new tech skills. That means more people, from all walks of life, are pursuing training with the hopes of a great career in technology waiting for them on the other side. However, two big problems stand in their way:

Access to training is limitedto individuals who have the time, money, and support to pursue learning a new skillset.

Current hiring practices often screen out quality candidateswho have the skills, but lack traditional degrees.

TechHire is recoding the American economy to solve these problems by helping employers find outstanding tech talent, and overlooked job seekers get the training and connections they need to start successful technical careers.

Kansas City is one of the original 21 communities to join former President Obama’s TechHire initiative. In 2016, the Full Employment Council received a $5M grant from the U.S. Department of Labor for the TechHire KC project that will help train 2,000 participants over three years, including young adults facing barriers to employment.

Training will focus on four high-growth industries: (1) IT, (2) healthcare, (3) advanced manufacturing, and (4) financial services. Working with Think Big, the Full Employment Council, the National Machining and Tooling Association, and Missouri/Kansas Hospital Association, TechHire KC will identify the skills to succeed in each industry and work with training providers to customize curricula to help prepare participants for well-paying jobs.

Our role as a tech-sector intermediary on behalf of the FEC is unique to Kansas City’s initiative. Think Big Partners offers the local project an industry-view of workforce and IT intelligence to deepen the impact on the community, and to help illuminate the pathways that accelerated technology training for the unemployed and under-employed can have through FEC and TechHire KC.

If you live in Clay, Platte, Cass, Ray or Jackson counties in Missouri, you may qualify for tuition assistance, on-the-job training, internships, and job placement services in the fields of Information Technology, Healthcare, Finance, and Advanced Manufacturing.

Recently, we connected with the Robert Manigold, Partner at Code Koalas, to learn how partnering with the FEC and TechHire KC has benefited his company.

To find out how the TechHire initiative can impact your organization, how you can participate with subsidized placements, and discover how you can influence programming, training and curriculum to better meet your workforce needs contact us at techhirekc@thinkbigpartners.com, or the Full Employment Council at 816.471.2330.